Holy cats it's only Wednesday.
I knew this week would be rough, and it's a doozy. I started setting my alarm for 6:15am this week, and have been in the shower by 6:25am all three days this week. I am not a natural morning person, so this is a big step for me. It's helped me be at the office before 8am, which makes me feel better about getting stuff done.
I need to be particularly careful about tracking my time at work this spring, as I step out every Tuesday and Thursday between 10:30am and 12:30pm to teach. I can't have any accusations of "double dipping" on my time sheet (doing class work while at my work office and calling it work work time).
I think this is a rough week for this. Tuesday morning I had a 3 hour orientation session for new faculty and TA's. The usual "these are the resources available to you and students on campus" and "you must report the following issues even is you just suspect" and "don't ever do this".
Tuesday evening I drove to my favorite city in Montana, Butte, America, to discuss their preservation ordinances with the Preservation Commission. We were just wrapping up the discussion at about 7pm when a sudden snow squall knocked the lights out. Now you can laugh, but I always have my headlamp in my purse. I use it all the time! And it came in handy last night, when we finished our discussion by the glow of my headlamp.
So I got back into the City's Honda CRV, with all wheel drive, and planned on driving back across the continental divide to Bozeman. Crept down from "Uptown" Butte, onto the interstate and snuggled in behind two logging trucks. I figured I could follow their tail lights, and since they were loaded down they'd be going slow. I could barely see the end of my headlights.
And then the logging trucks came to a dead stop. On the interstate. I couldn't see around them, so I wasn't sure if the pass was closed? I crept around (I think they stopped to chain up), and no one was in front of them. I happened to be on the phone with my sister at the time (hands-free device), and as I'm creeping up the pass, I remembered the time I drove to Missoula in similar weather, like an asshole. I told my sister I was taking the last exit at the base of the pass and maybe staying in Butte that night. "I have a husband and a doggie who love me at home, I'm not doing something stupid," I told her.
Yes universe, a Kramer actually made a cautious decision due to snowy roads!
I got back into Butte, got gas, and was trying to figure out what to do when the squall died out. I got back on the interstate, with about two inches of snow but no wind, and found myself behind two snowplows about to head east. Perfect.
Now is the part where I lecture to people about being an asshole on a snowy road. You see, at first, it was just the snowplows, then me, then a line of cars behind. Then this Honda apparently thought I was driving too slow of my own accord, so they passed me. I had to hit the brakes to make room for them between me and the snowplows.
And then ANOTHER driver did the same thing. This time in a Dodge truck. Asshat.
Thankfully after that, everyone else seemed to figure out what the deal was, and stayed behind me.
The lesson here? If you're stuck behind a really slow moving vehicle on a mountain pass, consider all the reasons the driver might be going slow. Including the idea that there are two snowplows in front!
I arrived home about 9:30pm, wiped, stressed, and without dinner. And it's only Wednesday, which means I can't sleep in any time soon.
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